S'pore unlikely to be spared from global slowdown

SINGAPORE: Singapore's economy could see some slowdown as the world economic outlook becomes uncertain. And a global recession is more likely than not as the US and European economies are at "stall" speed. That's according to Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who was speaking at the third World Bank - Singapore Infrastructure Finance Summit Tuesday. It has been said that when the US sneezes, the world catches a cold. And now, with Europe and Japan being in dire straits as well, Asia may no longer be immune to the global slowdown. Although Singapore will be vulnerable, Mr Tharman said the government "will know how to respond" in the event of a major dip in the economy. "Some slowdown is now very likely. What we have to do is to focus more on our medium and longer term challenges - we can deal with the short term, quite frankly, we've got the fiscal space to deal with...